'Pride and Glory' a misfire

Edward Norton and Colin Farrell almost pull it off; they almost redeem “Pride and Glory.”

Tim Miller

Edward Norton and Colin Farrell almost pull it off. They almost redeem “Pride and Glory.”

But just when this corrupt-cops thriller approaches its grand finale, it spins crazily out of control, delivering one of the worst endings to an otherwise OK film I’ve seen in a long time.

Norton plays the good cop, Ray Tierney. Four cops are gunned down at a drug dealer hangout. Ray, who’s been working missing-persons after a bad experience that’s more or less ruined his life, reluctantly joins the task force investigating the crime.

It turns out that bad cops are involved. Bad cops working under the command of his brother, Fran (Noah Emmerich). And the worst of the bad cops, the ringleader, is Ray’s brother-in-law, Jimmy Egan (Farrell).

I haven’t given anything away. All of this comes out pretty quickly; it’s no surprise. In fact, there aren’t a lot of surprises here. This is one of those genre movies that offer familiar stories and rely on the execution – the performances, the storytelling – to make or break them.

The acting carries the film quite a way. As Ray, Norton is intense and intelligent. As Jimmy, Farrell is passionate and charismatic (except when he’s being particularly scummy, which is often). Emmerich is fine as Fran, the brother always in the shadow of the more gifted Ray.

And Jennifer Ehle – star of the 1995 version of “Pride and Prejudice” – gives a wrenching performance as Fran’s wife, Abby, who’s dying of cancer, that’s so good it belongs in a much better movie.

And though the story has slow patches, and is overly complicated, it still could have worked overall if the climactic scenes weren’t so ridiculous. Two things go on at once – I won’t reveal what, but they both involve confrontations – and both are so ludicrous that you can’t help but wonder how anyone working on the film could possible have thought they were a good idea.